India have reached the semi-finals and ended Pakistan’s already slim chances of proceeding to the next round, beating West Indies by eight wickets in their second match of Group B. This makes Pak-India match on June 15 an insipid one which will have no consequences for any team, except that Pakistan could pacify the irate fans, who are waiting to give their national team very very ‘warm’ reception, by beating India having been defeated in the first two matches.

India reached England for the Champions Trophy amid the spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL) that rocked the game in the country. By now, many big guns have come under the spotlight. Even the wife of team’s captain, MS Dhoni, came under suspicion. Against this backdrop, nobody was expecting that India would make it to the last four. But Dhoni XI have proved after winning the first two matches that if any team is going to lift the title on performance, it is ‘Team India’.

Shikhar Dhawan with his bat and ‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja with his ball contained West Indies and helpe India seal victory. Dhawan scored second consecutive ODI century in the match.

West Indies came to bat and despite Chris Gayle’s early dismissal, runs continued to add up. Johnson Charles had been mercilessly beating Indian bowlers until he was out lbw by Jadeja. In the next over Jadeja dismissed Marlon Samuels and again in the preceding over he took the wicket of Ramnaresh Sarwan to collapse India’s batting line-up. The West Indies who had been 103 for one was now 109 for four. Darren Bravo, along with his brother Dwayne Bravo, tried to stop the fall of wickets, but only for a while and lost his wicket to Ravichandran Ashwin n the 34th over. Half of West Indies team was back to the benches on 140, with the batting powerplay still left.

Now Wet Indies were relying on Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, but the former was dismissed by Umesh Yadav in the powerplay. And who took his catch? Yes, ‘Sir’ Jadeja. Pollard too lost his wicket in the 43rd over, leaving former captain Darren Sammy with one end completely vulnerable. Sammy guided his team to 233 runs at a time when it seemed they would not even cross 200. He had replaced Denesh Ramdin in the match and justified his place in the side. Hitting two sixes and two fours in the 49th over and two fours and one six in the over, Sammy helped the Caribbean set a respectable target. He scored 56 off 35, hitting five fours and fours sixes.

Putting aside Sammy’s innings, West Indies middle order miserably failed against India as did against Pakistan, and after Charles, the next seven batsmen could only add 80 runs to the total.

Jadeja took his five-wicket haul in 10 overs, giving 36 runs, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Ashwin took one wicket apiece.

India set the tone for the victory from the outset, posting a 101-run opening stand. Century partnerships by the Indian openers in the two consecutive matches in English conditions, which are infamous for batsmen, are enough for great bowlers to have butterflies. Dhawan, who was given the man-of-the-match award for his 114 against South Africa, seemed impregnable against West Indies, too. India’s only wickets that fell were of Rohit Sharma (52) and Virat Kohli (22).

After a brief pause because of rain, India sailed through to victory on the first ball of the 40th over. Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik remained not out on 102 and 51, respectively.

As India have become the first team to reach the semi-finals and Pakistan the first to buy tickets home, South Africa and West Indies will now face each other in a do-or-die match.